Abstract

The management of pastures is very important to reduce soil erosion. A special attention is generally needed for the wood pastures which combine livestock grazing with trees and shrubs. In this paper, we investigated the differencess between the wood pastures and tree-less pastures and their role to prevent or mitigate the soil erosion. The soil erosion assessment has been performed by using of RUSLE and GIS. The model has been applied in two study-polygons with wood pasture and tree-less pasture located in the northern part of Hartibaciului Tableland (Romania). Our outcomes showed and highlighted by comparison that wood pastures have a lower predicted annual soil loss than pastures with accidental presence of trees. This fact suggests that wood pastures are more resilient to soil erosion than tree-less pasture. The metholology tried to calibrate a preliminary model of soil erosion assessment for wood pastures into the southern part of Transylvania.

Abstract

The protected site Dealurile Clujului-Est is located in the Transylvanian Depression subunit known as Somes Plateau, in the northern part of Cluj-Napoca. The presence of a plateau units characterized by an alternation of valley corridors and interfluves was able to dictate the existence of a variety of types of landscapes. Along with relief, which is characterized by altitude, slope, exposition and dynamic geomorphologic processes, the land use has been taken into account. The last three centuries Dealurile Clujului suffered a considerable human impact, despite seeming insignificant anthropogenic pressures and villages with low prevalence. Therefore we can say that the natural landscapes (characterized by state of climax or biostazie) are often insignificant compared to the spatial expansion of the territorial unit analyzed. The landscape is characterized by a rural lifestyle, clearly expressed, with forest vegetation positioned at higher parts of that territory, followed by traditional crops, the vast pasture and meadow, with the dominant category of small and very small villages, located along the valleys and the river origins. By applying the criteria mentioned and GIS techniques, we distinguished 14 types of landscapes and related subtypes, both natural and built.